Telephone companies are currently considering a variety of different types of networks that will allow them to deliver broadband services to the home, including video transmission, high speed data, Internet access, video telephony, and other similar services. Telephone companies have available a variety of hardware options for transmitting this information, including optical fiber, coaxial cable, such as that the cable TV companies use, and twisted wire pairs that the telephone companies already have in service for telephones at most locations. Each of these architectures offer different trade-offs, and many different network manufacturers and equipment manufacturers are offering proposals for how networks should be implemented and how equipment should be manufactured to address the trade-offs.
One of the types of networks that is of particular interest to telephone companies today is fiber-to-the-curb (FTTC). FTTC architectures have received strong consideration as a broadband access platform for delivering both telecommunications and video services. Given that FTTC and hybrid fiber/coax (HFC) full-service networks tend to have similar installed first costs, telephone companies have expressed great interest in the FTTC approach, for several reasons: 1) FTTC makes more extensive use of fiber than HFC; 2) it is perceived as being more reliable than HFC; and 3) it is perceived to have greater capacity for interactive services. Further, FTTC technology is of interest to telephone companies because this technology pushes optical fiber quite far into the network, which is a benefit in terms of service capabilities. The technology can also reuse some of the twisted pair wire lines that telephone companies already have connected to homes. As a result, use of this technology can save telephone companies money and time.
The current state of the art for fiber optics transmission includes two methods, one by Broad Band Technologies (BBT) and another originally developed by a company called Next-Level Communications (NLC).